Sometimes life has a funny way of doing things. On Wednesday I was talking to a friend about the likelihood of ever shaking Barack Obama’s hand:
Me: What are the chances?
Friend: In our life time or during his presidency?
Me: Both.
Friend: Probably 2% and .05% respectively.
Me: That sounds about right… maybe less.
Like many people, I’m enamored with Obama and I’ve officially raised him to role model status. This is a short list we’re talking about: Larry Bird, Indiana Jones, Barack Obama, and the good ol’ Mom and Pop. So you can imagine my excitement that night when Nate turned to me in the office and said that he just got tickets to go see an Obama Townhall! “Shut the f#$% up!”
Apparently, an ex-high school friend of ours now works for the Obama roadshow and passed some tickets to another friend from high school. Luckily for me, Nate used to date that friend and with a little bit of trickle down effect one of those tickets ended up in my hand. My hand!
So here am, waiting in a line of 1,000 people the next morning, when our ex-high school friend comes by and shouts “Kai!”as she passes by me going 800 mph. I shout back, “Hey there!”, then realize that Nate is following her, so I jump out of line and run after them. We get taken to a back entrance, where a secret service dude pats us down and waves a light saber around my body, then lets us through. We’re led to the front area and up a few sets of stairs. Before I know it, I’m sitting on the stage area, right behind Obama’s microphone!
At this point I’m giddy. Mayor Villaraigosa and Arnold came up and I couldn’t help but think, “Get off the freakin stage! Introduce him already!” And then they did, and he was there. The man himself, President Obama. He walked in nonchalantly, gave the mayor a slap and a half hug, shook the Governor’s hand and grabbed the mic. His speach was about 5 minutes long, then he took questions from the audience. Honestly, it went by in a blur, and I don’t remember too much, but I remember laughing a lot and thinking that if everyone in that gym got into a plane crash and we were all stuck on a desert island, I’d want that guy to lead us.
Afterwards he walked around a bit and greeted people. I waited patiently , hoping that he’d turn and walk towards us. He did! He was just three feet from me when I started panicking, “What should I say? What should I say?” Then he was standing in front of me. I extended my hand, he extended his, and we gripped for a good long second.
“President Obama.”
